Friday, 20 January 2012

Tablelands on Friday: Malanda Art Trail pt 2

Welcome to the second and final post on the mosaics of the Malanda Art Trail.

Commerce is on English Street, which, together with part of James Street, constitutes Malanda's CBD. This mosaic depicts the rural industries that keep the region thriving.

Border tiles show Tablelands agriculture...

tourism...

service industries...

and local government.

The central mosaic represents the arts and creative activities of Tableland residents.

Dairying is so important to Malanda that it gets its own mosaic. The graph in the bottom left corner shows the decrease in the number of farms (red line) and the increase in production (white bars) over the years.

The dairy industry is almost as old as the town. Cattle were brought here from New South Wales.

The butter factory (link to a report in the Courier-Mail, 12 March 1934).

At one stage, the town boasted the world's longest milk run, providing fresh milk to Darwin (2,800 km).

And...er...moving right along...

The Majestic Theatre hosts the Recreation mosaic.

The central scene recreates the events of 25 March 1931, when Don Bradman and his team took on the locals. Five thousand people turned up to watch. Fortunately, not all of them stayed for the dance later that night.

Some of the town's current (and former) recreational activities. The golf course did not last long because it was impossible to keep the grass short, despite the best efforts of lawn-mowing sheep.

Transport features a steam locomotive crossing the North Johnstone River downstream from Malanda Falls.When built, the bridge was the largest concrete construction in Queensland. Yes, this is a town of superlatives.

I'm sure vehicles like this are still in operation on some parts of the Tablelands.

A few of these too.

The Gillies Highway is now open to traffic in both directions. Well, most of the time. Would you believe 50%? It remains an exciting drive.

That brings us to the end of the mosaic trail. Next week, I'll show you around a couple of our pubs, where you're likely to find a completely different set of artists.